


i ran and i crawled and i chased to get a taste

by labellelunaclaire



Series: AUgust 2020 [17]
Category: Gentleman Jack (TV)
Genre: AU-gust 2020, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/labellelunaclaire/pseuds/labellelunaclaire
Summary: Day 17 —FirefightersCoffee ShopAnn Walker works at a coffee shop near her college campus. Three days a week, an attractive butch comes in and orders a large black coffee.
Relationships: Anne Lister (1791-1840)/Ann Walker (1803-1854)
Series: AUgust 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860763
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53
Collections: AUgust 2020





	i ran and i crawled and i chased to get a taste

**Author's Note:**

> Mental health? I don't know her.
> 
> Anyways, I've been having some really bad depression days on top of a lot of shit going on at work and bad life developments, so that's why this fic is so late. I finally got some time off of work for a couple days and I was able to catch up on most of my writings.

Ann looked up excitedly as the bell over the door rang at 7:35am.

It was the same every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

“One large black coffee,” the woman said briskly as she walked to the counter, her credit card already in her hand.

“That’ll be $4.25,” Ann very nearly stammered, taking the still-extended card out of the woman’s hand and swiping it before handing it back with the receipt.

“Thank you,” she responded as Ann grabbed a cup and hastily marked the order on it before passing it off to the other barista.

Ann tried not to stare as the woman walked over to the counter to wait for her drink. She was dressed much the same as she always was, in loose fit jeans and a v-neck shirt, a black blazer over top of it, elevating the look. Her short brown hair was tousled as always, and she had a leather bag at her side. Ann didn’t know much about her, except that she came in three days a week for the same exact thing.

Ann was entranced by her.

There was just… _something_ about her energy, her air of confidence. How she didn’t seem to care what anyone thought about her.

Ann wished she could be like her.

Ann still wasn’t even sure who she wanted to be. College was becoming an eye opening experience for her. She’d been so sheltered back home, with her parents trying to mold her into a perfect little housewife. She resisted all of the dates they attempted to set her up on, always feeling intensely uncomfortable with the boys who looked at her as though she were simply a prize to be won. Being away in another area of the country, living in a small apartment with a roommate and working a menial job at a coffee shop was showing her the way that most twenty year olds lived.

And of course, she realized that there was a bit more to her reluctance with boys than just disliking her parents’ choices for her.

Being a burgeoning young lesbian was rough work when you had no idea how to talk to girls.

More than anything in the world, Ann wanted to be able to talk to the attractive butch who tantalized her three mornings a week.

“Any fun plans for the weekend?” she managed to ask one Friday as she swiped the woman’s card.

“Just grading papers,” she said. “Freshmen. I can’t wait to see how many think that they can just copy and paste their sources straight from Wikipedia and think I won’t notice.”

“Oh, what do you teach?”

“Psychology,” she responded, taking the receipt.

“Sounds like fun,” Ann said with a smile, desperately trying to keep her cool, despite the fact that her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest any second.

“The inner workings of the human mind are fascinating,” the woman agreed. “Have a good day.”

“You as well,” Ann called as the woman was already turning to go wait for her coffee.

She felt so foolish. She spent the entire weekend agonizing over the interaction. So much so that she seriously considered calling into work on Monday.

But she also didn’t want to miss a chance to see the object of her crush.

“How were those papers?” she asked when the woman came in on Monday.

“Absolutely abysmal, as I expected,” she said, handing her card over. “I had hoped that they might surprise me, but very few did well enough to impress.”

“Sounds like you have pretty high expectations for them,” Ann said conversationally.

“Only as high as is necessary. If they expect to go anywhere in the field of psychology, they need to be disciplined.”

Ann smiled and handed the card back. “Well, at least they have you as a teacher to set them straight.”

Ann spent the rest of the day worried that she might have offended the woman with her comments.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! How was she so bad at this?

“How long have you been teaching at the university?” Ann asked on Wednesday, trying to sound casual.

“Only since last fall,” the woman said. “I did my undergraduate in London, and my graduate in Paris.”

“That’s so exciting!” she enthused. “I’m in my second year of an art history degree. I’d love to get to study in Paris. So many amazing museums.”

“It’s an incredible city. I’d highly recommend it.”

“You’ll have to give me some recommendations some time.”

She nodded, giving a little two finger salute as she tucked her card into her pocket and walked away.

Again, Ann agonized over the conversation. And even worse, she wasn’t scheduled to work on Friday because her parents wanted her home for the weekend, so she had an extra three days to replay every second of their interaction.

She dragged herself into work on Monday morning feeling sullen after an entire weekend of her mother nitpicking everything about her, from her appearance to her major to her choice of college to her lack of a rich boyfriend with good prospects.

“Bad night?” the woman asked after she gave her order.

“Huh?” Ann said vaguely. “Oh, yeah. I had to spend the weekend with my parents.”

“I had wondered where you were on Friday,” she commented, and Ann’s heart and stomach started doing an acrobatics routine.

“They just like to grind me down about everything,” Ann vented. “It’s so frustrating. And they wonder why I don’t like to tell them what’s going on in my life. They’re always asking me about boys, and sometimes I just want to scream at them, ‘ _I’m a lesbian!’_ But they’d probably just conveniently forget by the time I visited again.”

She took a deep breath. “Sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t be ranting to you about my family problems on a Monday morning when you’re busy.”

“It’s not a problem,” she promised. “I was once young and cared too much about what others think.”

“Really?” Ann asked. “You seem so confident and sure of yourself.”

“Confidence built on years of practice, I assure you. My one blessing was that I had my parents’ full support of who I was. If someone said something about me, they’d say, ‘That’s just how Anne is,’ and be done with it.”

 _Anne._ The incredibly attractive butch had a name.

“I’m called Ann as well,” Ann told her, her face feeling hot at all of the emotions that were swirling around in her head.

But Anne just smiled at her, those lovely lips curling up slightly more to one side than the other, her sharply angled face always just a tad bit mischievous, like she was hiding something.

“Well, it’s been very nice talking to you, Ann,” Anne said. “I suppose I’ll see you on Wednesday.”

“Wait!” Ann blurted out.

Anne raised an arched eyebrow.

“Would you like to get coffee with me sometime?” she asked quickly, her heart racing in her chest.

Anne slowly cast a look around the room, then leaned in close.

“You know that we’re in a coffee shop _right now,_ don’t you?” she stage whispered.

And oh, Ann had never before wished that the ground would open up and swallow her whole l before.

She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned with embarrassment. “Sorry,” she stammered. “I’m… I just… Oh God, I’m so _stupid,_ I-”

“Ann,” Anne said firmly.

Ann opened her eyes, and Anne was smiling at her.

“I’m just joking,” she told her lightly, reaching her hand out to take Ann’s. “I would love to have coffee with you.”

“You would?” Ann asked, utterly shocked.

“Of course,” Anne said. “You seem like a charming girl. I’d love to get to know you more when you’re not behind a register. Are you free tomorrow evening?”

“Yes!” Ann said excitedly. “I mean, I get out of classes at 3:30, so my evenings are usually clear.”

Anne reached into her leather bag and pulled out a pen and a pad of paper and quickly wrote something down before tearing off the page and handing it to her.

“That’s my phone number,” she explained. “If you text me your address, I’d be happy to pick you up. Or we can meet wherever we choose to go. There’s a lovely tea shop on the other side of campus that makes an excellent Turkish coffee.”

Ann held the paper as though it were something incredibly precious. “I can’t wait,” she said, a giddy smile painting her face.

“One large black coffee,” the other barista called out from the order counter.

“I’d better get going,” Anne told her, adjusting her bag. “I look forward to seeing you for our date tomorrow, Ann.”

 _Date._ She had a _date_ with a hot, butch, psychology professor.

“I can’t wait,” she replied. “I’ll text you my address when I get off work.”

Anne smiled at her and went to grab her drink.

As she reached the door to leave, she stopped for just a moment to look back at Ann and gave her a smile and a wink.

Ann was so happy, it felt like she was floating for the rest of her shift.

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from Passion Pit's _I've Got Your Number._
> 
> Where is this fic based? The UK? The US? I don’t even know anymore.


End file.
